State panel denies grants for Texas Panhandle courthouses

Three Texas Panhandle counties failed to get some of $21 million in courthouse restoration grants awarded Friday by the Texas Historical Commission.

Thirteen counties will receive partial matching grants from the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program during the 2012-13 fiscal year, the commission announced. Armstrong, Gray and Lipscomb counties each applied for the funds but did not earn a share of the pot.

“We got 40 applications requesting more than $158 million, and we roughly have just $20 million (to give out),” said commission spokeswoman Debbi Head. “Do the math, and you can see that there’s a great need.”

Friday’s announcement marks the seventh round of grants awarded since the preservation program was created in 1999.

Armstrong requested $4.9 million from the state, Lipscomb asked for $3.5 million and Gray wanted $1.1 million, according to figures Head provided.

The Gray County Courthouse at 205 N. Russell St. in Pampa was originally built in 1929 and was renovated in 2003, but county officials asked for more state money to finish some doors and complete the district attorney’s balcony, county court coordinator Sandi Martin said. The state provided $3.8 million for the 2003 restoration, which totaled $5.1 million, she said.

Armstrong officials plan a $5.7-million restoration of the courthouse at 100 Trice St. in Claude, County Judge Hugh Reed said.

The county first applied for grant money when the preservation program started, he said.

“If we would have gotten around one on this, we could have done this for a couple million dollars,” Reed said.

Armstrong officials will meet with commission officials to see what they can do to improve the grant application, Reed said.

“It’s a good program. We’ll just continue to march,” he said. “But right now, we’ll need to check and see what we could have done and see what the differences were.”

While disappointed about losing out on the grants, Lipscomb County Judge Willis Smith said he plans to meet with county officials to discuss the future of the planned courthouse restoration.

“It’s a commissioners’ court decision, so we’ll just have to see,” he said. “I think it will be nice at some point, but the commissioners are the ones who ultimately decide because it’s a money issue.”

Smith said officials plan a $4.1-million restoration for the courthouse at 100 S. Main St.

“(Lipscomb’s courthouse) was built in 1916, and there are some things that need to be done,” Smith said. “It’s mainly like windows and upgrading heating and air conditioning system. There are always things that would be nice.”

The commission uses more than a dozen criteria to determine which restoration projects receive grants. Grant criteria include the courthouse’s historic significance, building age and whether the county will use the courthouse after the project is done, according to a commission scoring list. It has awarded $227 million in restoration grants since the preservation program was created, agency figures show. Counties have provided $150 million in local grant matches.

The three grant rounds Texas lawmakers approved between 2001 and 2007 ranged from $45 million to $62 million each, according to the commission’s website. State lawmakers approved $20 million for the previous grant round.

Head said she is unsure about how much in preservation grants state lawmakers will approve during the next few years. She said the program is ongoing and awards grants based on available state funding.

“The success of the program speaks for itself, but I can’t predict how it’s going to turn out,” she said.

The grants are competitive, Reed said. No one restoration in Texas is significantly more needed then another, he said.

“Really, all the projects are legitimate and worthwhile,” Reed said, adding that Armstrong applied for the grants before. “It’s always been close, and I really couldn’t argue with anything they’ve come up with.”

Counties go after the restoration grants because the projects are tough to fund with local dollars, Smith said.

“If you can put it in 15 (percent) and get 85, that’s a pretty good match,” he said. “Without doing a bond, it’s pretty hard to come up with. You can also budget it over several years, but if the state’s offering it, we want to try for it.”

For information on the 13 counties that were awarded courthouse restoration grants, visit the commission’s website at www.thc.state.tx.us.

The Texas Historical Commission’s courthouse restoration web site shows 54 courthouses have been restored since its preservation program began in 2000. Here are the Texas Panhandle courthouses that have been fully restored:

■ The 1891 Donley County Courthouse at 300 S. Sully St. in Clarendon was restored in 2003. County figures show the project cost $4 million. The Texas Historical Commission awarded this project $3.1 million.

■ The 1926 Wheeler County Courthouse at 401 Main St. in Wheeler was restored in 2004. County figures show it put about $800,000 into the project, while the Texas Historical Commission put $3.6 million into the project.

■ The 1909 Randall County Courthouse at 16th Street and Fourth Avenue in Canyon was restored in 2010, but the project addressed only the building’s exterior. County figures show the project cost about $3 million, with the Texas Historical Commission providing $1.9 million.

■ The 1932 Potter County Courthouse at 500 S. Fillmore St. is undergoing a $17-million restoration. The project started in 2009.

■ The 1913 Roberts County Courthouse at 300 E. Commercial St. in Miami is undergoing a roughly $3.5-million restoration. The project started in 2009.